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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22720516">second place</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourlemonblue/pseuds/sourlemonblue'>sourlemonblue</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>...this is based on a true story, Alternate Universe - College/University, Happy Valentines Day!!!, Love Confessions, M/M, accidental confessions, please do NOT copy to other sites or apps</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:47:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,192</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22720516</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourlemonblue/pseuds/sourlemonblue</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time he says it, it slips from his lips, unbidden and thoughtless. He doesn’t mean it any less.<br/>“Okay, love you, see you later.”<br/>Quick and easy, just like that.</p><p> </p><p>(Or, Hajime confesses by accident, but it's not because he doesn't mean it.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>226</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Iwaoiks Fics</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>second place</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostsandGhouls/gifts">GhostsandGhouls</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this is my part of a valentines exchange!!!! hope you like it bb ♥</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time he says it, it slips from his lips, unbidden and thoughtless. He doesn’t mean it any less.</p><p>“Okay, love you, see you later.”</p><p>Quick and easy, just like that.</p><p>It registers a moment later, as he turns on his heel and walks away, near-robotic with the sudden onset of nerves. Hajime feels his jaw tighten and his eyes widen. The shiver up his spine says more—that it’s true, that he means it.</p><p>“Shit,” Hajime hisses under his breath and forces his feet to keep moving. Professors aren’t as lenient as they maybe should be with exams and pass-fail percentages, and confronting this particular sacred truth right now would only make him late.</p><p>(Oikawa has always come first, between them. Not entirely on purpose, or by any specific intent, but he and Hajime have always fallen into order like that, with Oikawa’s charisma leading and Hajime’s steady faith following closely behind. He’s used to second place, in that way, and it’s comfortable.</p><p>Suddenly, that order is turned on its head, and Hajime is thrust uncomfortably into the limelight.)</p><p>“Iwa-chan?” Oikawa murmurs, his confusion as evident as it is justified, voice fading as Hajime keeps moving forward, away.</p><p>Hajime has to stop himself from looking back at his best friend because he’s going to waste his parents’ money if he does.</p><p>He continues on. It’s one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do.</p><p>To assuage his own fears, he sends two quick texts, one after the other.</p><p> </p><p><em> come over tonight?<br/>
</em> <em>we can talk about it then.</em></p><p> </p><p>He shuts his phone off for his test before Oikawa can respond, and he tells himself it’s not because he fears the answer.</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>Oikawa is already on Hajime's couch when he stumbles in, the math equations feeling like they're still spinning in his head.</p><p>"How did it go?" Oikawa looks more nervous than Hajime feels, which is a feat in itself.</p><p>"It was fine. I was ready," Hajime says and jumps right in. "Oikawa—"</p><p>"If you didn't mean it, then we can forget it ever happened."</p><p>Hajime feels his stomach drop because that's the <em> last </em> thing he would ask for. He would sooner live with Oikawa's unreciprocated feelings than he would take back even such a simple admission.</p><p>"<em>No</em>," he says, as his own feelings lay thick in his throat. "I can't just—I <em> refuse </em> to run away from this anymore."</p><p>Oikawa looks him in the face for the first time. There’s a wary sort of hope behind his eyes, and Hajime isn’t ready to see the honesty in his gaze. The privacy of it strikes him in the gut. Feelings like these, Oikawa would usually do everything in his power to shove them down, block them out, hold his breath, never let them in, but—</p><p>This time, there’s <em> hope</em>.</p><p>“Oi—uh. Tooru?” Hajime whispers, and there’s electricity now, in the warmth and jagged edges laced with gold. “I’m…”</p><p>Fuck, why is this so hard? He’s been thinking about this moment since his first year of high school, and now he can barely get the words out. These feelings have been mounting inside him for too long, and the place where they sit in his heart is tender and sore. How does he do this? How does he say his feelings in exactly the way he means them?</p><p>Can he?</p><p><em> Speak</em>, the tired, overwrought part of his heart says to the heat in his chest. <em> If you speak from the heart, where you love him most, then you cannot be led astray. </em></p><p>So Hajime does.</p><p>“Tooru, it...it wasn’t a lie, and saying it wasn’t a mistake. So I meant what I said, even if that’s...not how I meant it to come out.” He pauses, because his heart’s in his throat, but it’s a fluttering, truly exquisite type of relief. Hajime’s heart is pounding like he’s run miles, but he’s got many more to go before he’s done.</p><p>Tooru stays silent and still, very different from his usual theatrical performance, but Hajime has known him too long to miss the tear tracks that run down his cheeks.</p><p>“So the truth is out,” Hajime murmurs, eyes low, and he feels the atmosphere around him constrict in real time. “I’ve stuck around this long though, and, dammit, if this is all it takes for us to call it quits, then I don’t know you as well as I thought I did, Tooru. Just...let me down easy, and I’ll get over it. That’s all I ask.”</p><p>“Why would I do that?”</p><p>Hajime startles, because Tooru’s a living, breathing contradiction, with his nerves and his resolve, and wet eyes with molten rock behind them. “What?” he whispers, and the sore corner of his heart rises into his mouth.</p><p>“Why,” Tooru states, matter-of-fact, “would I let you down at all?”</p><p>The silence spans them once again, but this one has a low heat to it, one that warms over Hajime’s cheeks and his hands twitch in reaction to the last conclusion he’d ever expect.</p><p>“I suppose ‘iwa’ does mean ‘rock’ but I didn’t think you were <em> that </em> dense, Hajime.” Oikawa’s tone is prim, but his expression remains severe, and there’s another contradiction that sits heavy in Hajime’s bones. “I thought my feelings weren’t reciprocated, but really, it’s because you thought yours wouldn’t be. You’re kind of a mess, Iwa-chan.”</p><p>“Asshole,” Hajime mutters reflexively, and Tooru snorts, rubbing some of the tears away.</p><p>“You’re lucky I didn’t do my makeup today, Iwa-chan, or you’d be paying—for all the work I put into my eyeliner, and you go and make me cry? Rude.” He smiles finally, <em> finally</em>, and Hajime knows, in that moment, that maybe second place was never all that bad. </p><p>“So we’re just both idiots, right? That’s what I was supposed to be garnering?” Tooru’s nerves are all but gone by now, but this is just one clinging shadow of doubt that Hajime is ready to punt into the sun.</p><p>He smiles with his whole heart, even the bruised parts. “Tooru, we’ve both known that this whole time. The ‘in love’ part is the recent development.”</p><p>Tooru stares him down, skepticism making Hajime laugh. “It’s come to light, I guess, but it’s not a <em> recent </em> thing, Hajime. I’ve been pining for—definitely years.” </p><p>“Maybe so,” Hajime laughs, and soft light and warmth seeps into them. Tooru‘s eyes go even brighter, and it’s not a surprise for Hajime, who smiles wide. “There’s that ugly crying I was missing.”</p><p>Tooru chuckles with him, aborted and wet, and shoves at his shoulder roughly, taking the sock on the arm dutifully in return. Then he whispers something Hajime doesn’t catch, and Hajime stops goofing off just long enough to listen.</p><p>“What was that?”</p><p>Tooru is blushing, leaning close. Hajime can feel the heat rising off of him, as Tooru whispers, reverent.</p><p>"<em>Kis</em><em>s me?</em>”</p><p>Hajime, like he’s pulled by something stronger than fate, a strand of white-gold stronger than steel, leans forward and does exactly that.</p><p>He was wrong about second place, actually, as he smiles against his best friend’s lips. It’s more like being tied for first.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>—</p>
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